Analysis Crypto by Thebittimes.Com

Two California school district officials have pleaded guilty to stealing up to $1.8 million and electricity to fund and run a secret crypto mine, remodel property, and purchase expensive cars. According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), assistant superintendent Jeffrey Menge embezzled up to $1.5 million over four years from the Patterson Joint Unified School District in Sacramento, while IT director Eric Drabert stole up to $300,000.  Menge and Drabert were accused of over-billing the school district through a company Menge controlled called CenCal Tech. Through establishing a fake executive named Frank Barnes, the pair were able to “conduct more than $1.2 million in fraudulent transactions” by “double billing, over billing, and billing for items not delivered by CenCal Tech to the school district.” The pair also purchased high-end graphic cards and installed a crypto mine powered using the school district’s electricity. Illegal crypto mining...

The US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved Celsius Network’s restructuring plans for bitcoin mining on Wednesday. Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022. A US bankruptcy court has approved Celsius Network’s bitcoin mining shift as part of the ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings the collapsed crypto lender filed in July 2022. The approval order was given by Judge Martin Glenn of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on December 27, Reuters reported. Per the ruling, Celsius can go ahead with the restructuring plans that aims at focusing the company’s operations on Bitcoin mining .  The judge’s order overruled objections to the restructuring plans, paving the way for the move as the crypto firm looks to navigate away from the impactful bankruptcy proceedings. As reported,   US Bitcoin Corp announced in August that it had entered into agreed t...

Crypto mining startup OCEAN raised over $6 million from Jack Dorsey and other backers to enhance decentralization of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Decentralized Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool OCEAN, a subsidiary of Mummolin Inc., has raised $6.2 million in a seed funding round led by Jack Dorsey. According to a press release on Nov. 28, 2023 the round was also led by other investors such as Accomplice, Barefoot Bitcoin Fund, MoonKite, NewLayer Capital and the Bitcoin Opportunity Fund. As per Mummolin Co-Founder Luke Dashjr, Ocean represents a new type of pool that enables miners “to be truly miners again.” “We are launching as the most transparent pool and also the only non-custodial pool where miners are the recipients of new block rewards directly from Bitcoin.” Luke Dashjr You might also like: Canaan’s Q3 Bitcoin mining revenue declines by nearly 80% According to Jack Dorsey, the startup is aimed at solving a problem of Bitcoin mining pools’ centr...

Blockchain company Bitdeer has become a cloud service provider in the NVIDIA partner network. Bitcoin cloud mining services company Bitdeer Technologies Group has entered into a partner ship agreement with NVIDIA to double down on supercomputing resources. In a press release on Nov. 9, Bitdeer said it had become a cloud service provider (CSP) in the NVIDIA partner network. It allows the Singapore-based company to launch a cloud service in Asia powered by NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, an artificial intelligence data center infrastructure with DGX H100 systems. NVIDIA’s Senior Director of the DGX platform, Tony Paikeday, said the partner ship opens doors for Bitdeer to provide the AI supercomputing and software “needed to build and deploy generative AI models and services.” You might also like: Bitdeer to buy back shares worth up to $2m Founded in 2018 by Jihan Wu, a co-founder of Bitcoin (BTC) mining giant Bitman, Bitdeer says it is currently “methodically...

The Bitcoin (BTC) mining business is a live ‘winner-takes-all’ race, with mining companies and pools competing against each other for the discovery of the next valid block that guarantees the right to collect the mining reward of 6.25 BTC plus transaction fees. Recent changes in the hashrate spectrum towards AntPool could further impact Bitcoin network decentralization. Notably, the Digital Currency Group (DCG) subsidiary and American mining pool, Foundry USA, has led this race in the last three years. Foundry dominated the block discovery by 17.78%, for a total of 28,331 Bitcoin blocks mined since October 2020. This data is from mempool.space , collected by Finbold on October 6, 2023. Bitcoin Pools Ranking, 3-year. Source: mempool.space However, AntPool has suddenly increased its hashrate power in the last few days, surpassing Foundry USA in the block discovery to become the new leading pool in the Bitcoin mining race. AntPool has kept its second place, closely following the lead...

The report highlighted that Bitcoin mining can convert wasted methane emissions into less harmful emissions. A paper published by the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) concluded that Bitcoin (BTC) has the potential to be a catalyst for a global energy transition.  IRM Energy and Renewables Group members Dylan Campbell and Alexander Larsen published a report titled “Bitcoin and the Energy Transition: From Risk to Opportunity.” The paper argued that while BTC was perceived as a risk because of its energy consumption, it can also catalyze energy transition and lead to new solutions for energy challenges worldwide. Within the report, the authors also highlighted the important function of energy and the increasing need for reliable, clean and more affordable energy sources. Despite the criticisms of Bitcoin’s energy intensity, the study provided a more balanced view of Bitcoin by showing the potential benefits BTC can bring to the energy industry. Amount of vented methane that can be use...

BTC price has struggled for nearly a month, but Bitcoin miners revenue is up, calling into question the logic of short sellers betting against mining stocks. Driven by heightened demand for Bitcoin (BTC) block space, fueled by Ordinals inscriptions and the PEPE-fueled BRC-20 memecoin mania, miners have become direct beneficiaries of a sudden boom in transaction fees, increasing their bottom lines. This surge has resulted in an unprecedented increase in the average number of transactions, and consequently revenue per BTC block mined. Data from a recent Glassnode report sheds light on the revenue increase for miners in May, as they raked in a total of 12.9 BTC in mining rewards per block, with fee revenue surpassing subsidies for only the fifth time in Bitcoin’s history. Bitcoin average fee paid per block. Source: Glassnode Coin Metrics data underscores this phenomenon further, revealing that on May 8, miners generated a staggering $41.16 million in daily revenue, a level unseen since l...

Bitcoin miner Riot has unveiled its financial results for Q2 2023, reporting a total revenue of $76.7 million. The results highlight the company’s resilience in a fluctuating market, with a 27% increase in Bitcoin production contributing significantly to its success. Riot has reduced the average cost of mining Bitcoin to $8,389, down from $11,316 in the same quarter last year. This reduction comes despite a lower average Bitcoin price of $28,024 in Q2 2023, compared to $33,083 in Q2 2022. You might also like: Riot stock falls by more than 60% over past year, company makes changes Riot’s partnership with Midas Immersion aims to make Riot’s Corsicana Facility the largest and most advanced immersion cooling deployment for Bitcoin mining worldwide. Additionally, Riot announced a long-term purchase agreement with MicroBT, securing 33,280 next-generation miners with an option to purchase another 66,560. These acquisitions are expected to add 7.6 EH/s by mid-2...

After a torrid 2022 that saw it sell off its flagship mining facility, Argo Blockchain's woes are worsening after a recent class action suit. Investors of crypto mining firm Argo Blockchain have filed a class action lawsuit accusing the miner of making untrue statements and omitting key information during its initial public offering (IPO) in 2021. A newly filed lawsuit on Jan. 26 is aimed at Argo and several of its executives and board members. It claims the firm failed to disclose how susceptible it was to capital constraints, electricity costs and network difficulties. "The Offering Documents were negligently prepared and, as a result, contained untrue statements of material fact or omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading," the lawsuit read. As a result, the investors claim the Business was “less sustainable” than they had been led to believe which led to an overstatement of the miner’s financial prospects. The complaint noted...

Local stakeholders believe that a crypto mining moratorium might actually mean the beginning of a new dialogue between the government and the industry. Canada has remained a peculiar regulatory alternative to the neighboring United States in regard to crypto currency. While its licensing process has become more stringent than in some countries, Canada was the first to approve direct crypto exchange-traded funds. State pension funds have invested in digital assets, and crypto Mining firms have moved to the country to take advantage of the cool temperatures and cheap energy prices. But the gold rush for miners in Canada may be slowing down. In early December, the province of Manitoba — rich in hydroelectric resources — enacted an 18-month moratorium on new mining projects. This move resembled a recent initiative in the U.S. state of New York that stopped the renewal of licenses for existing mining operations and required any new proof-of-work miners to use 100% renewable energy. Thes...

At the midpoint, the guidance represents a growth of 1.1% from its revenue in 2021. According to a new letter to shareholders posted on Dec. 21, Aroosh Thillainathan, CEO of German Bitcoin (BTC) Mining company Northern Data, said that the firm expects to generate upwards of $202M to $206M in revenue from crypto Mining operations this year. At the midpoint range, this represents a growth of 1.11% from Northern Data's total sales of $202M for the 2021 fiscal year, when the firm grew its revenue ten-fold from 2020. Thillainathan added: "Northern Data is not carrying financial debt and therefore has access to the unique opportunity to consolidate and expand our current position in BTC mining while scaling cloud solutions and colocation services in parallel. We see significant opportunities in the HPC [high-performance computing] markets we are targeting." The blockchain CEO also stated that investors should expect guidance of $43M to $80M in adjusted earnings before inte...

The Bitcoin market has been drowning the red sea along with its counterparts. Amidst constantly crashing projects, the mining industry hasn’t been very profitable. While several filed for bankruptcy a few others have been recording nothing but losses. Canaan, a popular Bitcoin mining platform, revealed that its net income during the third quarter plummeted by 88 percent. In a recent report, it was brought to light that the firm’s Q3 net income dropped to 6.11 million yuan or $8.6 million when compared to last year. The amount of computing power sold fell by 48.5% to 3.5 million terahashes per second. This was further followed by its revenue which dropped by 26% to 978.2 million yuan. Addressing the latest drop, Nangeng Zhang the CEO of the firm said in a statement, “The negative market dynamics have significantly hindered bitcoin miners’ revenues and cash flows. As miners are forced to cut their demand for computing power, we had to adjust down our ...

Last Week, the Bitcoin mining hashrate crossed the 300 EH/s benchmark to clinch a new all-time high. At that time, it was reported that mining difficulty was also set to increase this week. Read More: Bitcoin Hashrate crosses 300 EH/s to create new ATH Now, post the latest adjustment that took place on Monday, Bitcoin mining difficulty surpassed the 35.61 trillion mark to create a new record high. JUST IN: #Bitcoin mining difficulty reaches 35.61 trillion, a new all time high. — Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) October 10, 2022 Largest hike since May 2021 The last adjustment made Bitcoin’s mining difficulty drop. However, during the previous four instances before that, the difficulty saw inclinations in the 0.63% to 9.26% bracket. This time, however, it transpired into a whooping 13.55% hike. Per data from BTC.com, the latest elevation is the largest since 13 May 2021. The number in August last year, however, stood quite close at 13.24%. Resultantly,...

Here are some ways to generate crypto-powered passive income with Bitcoin while steering clear of inherent volatility. Bitcoin (BTC), along with other cryptocurrencies, has provided people with a venue to earn passive income, making money without any active involvement. One doesn't need to take unnecessary trading risks or spend time reading and analyzing reams of information.  While the concept of passive earning isn't new, cryptocurrency has undoubtedly added new dimensions to it. Concepts like compounding interest or reinvesting dividends are also applied in the cryptocurrency market, creating an ecosystem where one can earn passively. Let us discuss various ways to earn passive income with Bitcoin. This article includes interest accounts, lending, mining, trading and liquidity pool. Bitcoin interest accounts Keeping Bitcoin in a cryptocurrency savings account is similar to having regular savings accounts. These accounts offer fixed interest on the crypto assets deposited. ...